The Lonesome Drifter ~ Eager Boy [Norton, 2010]

ED-327

A1. Eager Boy
A2. Tear Drop Valley
A3. Honey Do You Think of Me
A4. No Lovin' No Rockin' Blues
A5. Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues
A6. I Want You Back
A7. Eager Boy [Alternate Take]
A8. I'll be Lonesome When You're Gone

B1. Teardrop Valley [Alternate Take]
B2. I'll Take a Chance
B3. This Old World Don't Seem the Same
B4. I'm Gonna Quit My Crying
B5. Blues from a Broken Heart
B6. I Wished It Wasn't So
B7. Your New Love
B8. Tear Drop Valley [Alternate Take]
B9. Eager Boy [Alternate Take]



'The Lonesome Drifter was born, on December 6, 1931 on a cotton farm in north Louisiana. As a youth, He worked as a water boy for the cotton pickers on a plantation and recalls hearing his first blues music while watching an old black man playing a slack string guitar out side of an old country General Store. Other musical influences included Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe & Bluegrass Music was the foundation of his style.

His Recording of 'Eager Boy' and 'Tear Drop Valley' on Mira Smith's K record label is one of the most sought after records among rockabilly collectors in the late 1950's. The Drifter an established hillbilly performer, got word of a new recording company, Ram Records, that has just opened for business in Shreveport , seventy miles from his home in Monroe, Louisiana. The Drifter recalls on the first release from Ram: I had been to Mira Smith's studio to record and she asked me what name I wanted on the record, I did not want to use my real name. As I was driving back to Monroe, I thought about one of my idols, Hank Williams, and he had made records as 'Luke The Drifter'. I was a rambling man in those days so when I got to Minden, Louisiana it came to me. I got out of my car and phoned Mira, CEO of the record company & said, 'call me 'The Lonesome Drifter'.

'Eager Boy' and 'Tear Drop Valley' were released on K Records in 1958, a subsidiary of Ram, named after Mira's sister. On 'Eager Boy' & 'The Drifter' a friend Tom Bonnet of West Monroe La, who had accompanied him to the studio, played the lead guitar. The success of the flip, 'Tear Drop Valley', featuring West Monroe musician George Mercer on lead guitar, secured for The Lonesome Drifter wish to appear on The Louisiana Hayride.

Today The Lonesome Drifter lives quietly in West Monroe, LA where he is the owner and founder of Wellsprings Records®, The President of Old Riverwood Music & Publisher, founder & operator of Acrew Records, TN & owner of Studio Apache. Oh well, so much for living quietly.'

'Wonderful work from Lonesome Drifter – an enigmatic figure on the late 50s Louisiana scene, working here in a very hip blend of early rockabilly and country swing! The cuts are nice and raw & mostly feature acoustic guitar in the forefront, alongside Drifter's vocals – which have a plaintive, echoey quality that's very much in the Hank Williams school – although take it from us, Lonesome is no Hank copycat either! There's some nicely stripped-down production on all these cuts – giving them a timeless feel that really holds up – and the overall approach is quite different than more familiar late 50s work of this type, kind of the echoes of the underbelly of the scene first started in Memphis – but spread out to some really local inflections.' ~ dusty

perch merch

despite the 4 alternate takes that i can live without, these are the most evocative songs i heard owl day. what a vibrant sound this cat conjures; short, sweet & poignant. some of the more obscure tracks have these echo-drenched vocals that really elevate the high lonesome weirdness factor. highest imaginable recommendation fer a saturday afternoon. 256 variable bits later